Veteran Salute: Soaring high with the Navy
COUNCIL GROVE (KSNT) – Born and raised in Council Grove, Third-Class Petty Officer Sam Young soared higher with the Navy than he ever imagined.
Sam joined the military alongside three close friends, or at least that was the plan.
“We found out that if we joined the Navy and went in on the buddy plane, that we could stay together,” Young said. “They had got cold feet and all three backed out, so I was the only one that went for the four years.”
Even with going solo, that decision turned out to be a great experience for Young.
“I didn’t have a college education, but I always wanted to be an aircraft pilot,” he said. “They sent me to Mississippi to become an aircraft mechanic, so I thought well at least it’s with airplanes. After I graduated there, they sent me to Corpus Christi. I was put on the transit line where we had to learn the shapes of about 150 different aircraft coming and going just by their silhouettes, so we knew what we needed to fix them or take care of them.”
After a couple of years, Young was recruited by a First-Class Petty Officer to serve as an Assistant Plane Captain.
“I was very excited, and I was very proud because there was 27 of us on the line taking care of other aircraft,” Young said. “When they came and picked me out of all of them, I was very very excited and impressed that they thought I was that well enough, so I jumped at the chance.”
Being a part of the Admiral’s crew kept Young busy nearly around the clock.
“Our responsibility was to make sure that aircraft was fueled and ready to go,” he said. “During the time that I was in there we had to rebuild the engine’s every 100 hours. Once we had them all put back together, we would take them on a test op. We’d go 10,000-15,000 feet and then cut all four engines.”
Being in that role gave the Plane Captain a high sense of pride.
“It made you feel pretty important,” Young said, “because there wasn’t too many that could actually take a plane that had already been sent out to the graveyards, bring it back, rebuild it, and get it working again. It was kinda like that was your baby. No one was allowed on that plane but us.”
After his time in the military came to an end, Young put those skills he acquired to good use working across mechanic and engineering jobs, including working on the railroad for 31 years.
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